Improved method of telegraphing from railroad-cars while moving



D. GHESEBRO. METHOD OF TELEGRAPHING FROM RAILROAD CARS WHILE MOVING. No. 24,721.

Patented J11 1ygl-2, 1'859.

Jwe on UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DENISON CHESEBRO, OF SYRACUSE, NEW YORK.

IMPROVED METHOD OF TELEGRAPHING FROM RAILROAD-CARS WHILE MOVING.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 24,721, dated July 12, 1559.

To alk'whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DENISON (Museum, of Syracuse,in the county of Onondaga and State of New York, have invented an Improvement in Devices for Telegraphingfrom Railroad Oars while in Motion, the construction and operation of which I have described in the following specification and illustrated in its accompanying drawings, with sufficient clearness to enable competent and skillful workmen in the arts to which it pertains or is most nearly allied to make and use my invention.

My said invention consists in a number of pendants hung or attached to a railroad-telegraph wire, and at such distances apart that the distance between any two contiguous pend ants will be less than the length of the roof of a railroad-car, in combination with two plates of metal attached to the roof of said our in a direction parallel to its length, and separated by a piece of wood scantling, which stands higher than the plates, the lower part of each pendant being formed into an arch, so as to astride the wood seantling and take a bearing on .the metallic plates when the car passes under them, while at the same time a movable tongue between the arms of each pendant is raised vertically by the piece of wood scantlin g before mentioned, by which vertical motion the progress of the imponderable fluid through the telegraph-wire is interrupted at the pendant, each portion of the said wire is insulated from the other, and the power of communication transferred to the metallic plates, and from them to the inside of the car by means of two other wires, attached one to each metallic plate and passing through the roof of the car to the inside, thereby enabling me, through the medium of the said wires and a telegraphic apparatus in the said car, to open a communication not only with any depot or station along the line, either above or below the car, but also with any other train thatmay be running along the said line, while at the same time I so construct my apparatus that as the car passes from under each of the pendants the tongue of the pendant descends by its gravity to its original position, and the telegraphic communication at that part of the wire is restored, as hereinafter more fully described.

My said invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, as follows:

Figure 1 isa side elevation, showing the car with two pendants, marked Nos. 1 and 2, the lower surfaces of which are resting on the metal plates. Fig. 2 is an end elevation, showing the car in the same position. Fig. 3 is a side elevation, to a larger scale, of the pendant as shown in Fig. 1. Fig.4 is an elevation, also to a larger scale, of the pendant as shown in Fig. 2. Fig.

5 is a-vertical section through the pendant and tongue by a plane parallel to the telegraph wire.

The pendant is so constructed as to present the appearance of two arches or horseshoes, A A and B B, joined together by the plates (3, which pass from the arms or sides A A of the upper arch and join onto the lower arch at its top,or nearly so, as shown upon-thedrawin gs. These arms or, arches are so attached that their planes will'be at right angles to each other, and so that the plane of the upper arch will be parallel to the line of wire or road, which will consequently make'the plane of the lower arch at right angles to the wire. The arms of the upper arch are connected by braces or rails D D and pass above the latter brace a distance suificient to allow the telegraph-wire to be wrapped around or otherwise attached to them.

One of the peculiarities of my device consists in the manner in which I attach the telegraph wire E E to and pass it through the pendant, preventing the pend ant at the same time from forming any part of the circuit, which I eflect in the following manner: Having covered with an insulating substance the part of the arm A which projects above the rail or brace D, I wrap around the said. portion of the arms A that part E of the telegraph-wire which is situated to the right of the pendant, (marked No. 2 in Fig. 1,) and having so wrapped it around or otherwise secureditto the arm, as described, I pass it through two holes or perforations, c e, in the plates C, before described, which connect the upper and lower arms together. The inside of these perforations, as also the space between them, is coated with an insulating substance, through which the telegraph-wire is passed. It is then again turned downward and passed through another hole or perforation, I), in the lower arm, B, the said perforation being lined, as before, with an insulatingsubstance, and finally the wire is attached to a metallic plate or disk, F, having-its lower surface convex, and situated below and under the arm B of the lower arch of the pendant.

An operation precisely similar is gone through with the portion E of the wire which is situated to the left of the pendant, (marked No. 2 in Fig. 1,) the only difference being that this wire is conducted by similar steps through the perforation fin the other arm, B, of the lower arch of the pendant and is finallyattaehed to the disk F below the arm B, the insulatin g substance being applied where necessary, as described in the former part of the operation. The same method of attachment is gone through with all the pendants on the line.

It will be evident, from a slight consideration of the drawings and description, that the method of attaching the telegraph-wires to the pendants, as set forth,provides a perfect communication from any one pendant to the next contiguous one on either side, but no farther, as I have not yet described my device for connecting the convex disks F and F below the lower arms,B B. To connect these disks, and thereby establish a perfect telegraphic communication along the whole line, I provide a rectangular tongue, G, which I pass upward through a vertical mortise of the samev form,

- made for that purpose between the arms B B of the lower arch, the mortise being made so much larger than the tongue that the latter can move upward or downward without being impeded by friction against the sides of the mortise. The lower part of this tongue I expand into a shoe, H, having a convex bottom or sole, the direction of the length of the shoe being parallel to the line of rail or to the telegraph-wire. The upper part of the stem Gr of this tongue I reduce in lateral dimension and make cylindrical, so as to enable me to pass it through a circular perforation a little larger than the cylindrical part, and provided for that purpose in the center of the rail or brace D, which connects the upper arms, A A ,which circular perforation, in connection with the mortise below, keeps the stem of the tongue in a vertical position, allowing it at the same time to move up and down freely, whileby the rectangular form of the stem G itis pre-' vented .from rotating horizontally upon its axis-an occurrence which would be fatal to the efficiency of its action, as will be more fully explained farther on. I now pass a short length of telegraph-wire, through the rectangular stem G of this tongue, and in a direction at right angles to the main wire, having previously insulated the portion of this wire that would otherwise come into contact with the said tongue, and having removed so much of theinsulatin g substance between the plates 0 as to expose thejuppe'r surfaces of the two portwo metallic plates, I I, on the roof of the car.

at such a height from the rails and such a distance apart that when the car passes under one of the pendants the disks F F will be in contact with the upper surface of the plates,

and will continue so while the car is moving underneath. Between these metallic plates I I, I-fix a piece of wood scantling,'K, so much higherthan the plates that when the disks F F are resting on the latter the greater height of thewood scantling will raise the tongueG, and by that means interrupt the circuit along the telegraph-wire, the contact of the disks and plates having the effect of placing the forward portion of the telegraphwire in connection with one plate, while theremaining portion of the wire is in connection with the other. This connection I transfer into the car by meansof two other'wires in contact with the plates, and which pass through the roof into the body of thecar, where, by attaching each of them to aseparate battery, I can transmit messages to any station or depot on either side of the car simultaneously, and without in the smallest degree checking the motion of the car.

To prevent the shock which would otherwise'take place between the plates and woodscantling on the car and the arms and tongue of the pendant,I round off the ends. of the plates and scantling into a curvilinear. convex form, which, coming in contact with 'thecom vex surfaces of the disks and shoe, will lift them up gradually, and thereby prevent'the shock which would otherwise take place upontheir meeting.

By'thiscontrivance I am enabled to give.

instant intelligence of any breakdown,- ob- -struction,,or other casualty which may occur upona lineof railroad to interrupt the traffic, notonly to the difi'erent stations or depots on each side of the car, but also to every/train then upon the same line of rails, and without the necessity of interfering in any manner with the motion of the car while so doing, thereby doing away with the present cumbrous method of dispatching an engine specially for that purpose.

The particular improvement which constitutes my said invention, and which I claim I as having been originally and first invented by me, is-

The combination of a sufficient number of pendants arranged as described, and each structed, operated, and operating in the manner hereinbefore described, and for the purposes set forth.

DENISON GHESEBRO. Witnesses:

J. HUNT, M. 0. NICHOLS, B. L. RIDER. 

